Wind From the East

In the history of cinema, no director has utilized the medium of film to a greater degree or with a greater understanding than Jean-Luc Godard. It seems so clear that while watching this utterly unorthodox film, that he truly believes in the possibilities of cinema -- to him it has the possibility of changing the world. He made this in 1971, during his most radically political period, when he and a group of filmmakers had gotten together and called themselves the "Dziga Vertov group" after the great Soviet documentarian/propogandist of the 20's. This is not so much a film as a cinematic essay on the nature of world politics, thoroughly soaked with the philosophies of Marx, Engles, and Lenin, and the need for the workers around the world to rebel against their capitialist exploiters. The essence of Marx, the film proclaims, is that "it is right to rebel". Granted, my politics rest firmly on the other end of the spectrum, but I can't help but be fascinated by the way in which he presents his argument. There is no story, and there is almost no mise-en-scene, just a series of images combined with a few semi-dramatic scenes, with the focus being the ever present narrator discussing such topics as the necessity of revolution and the nature of cinema itself (especially in relation to the workers, and the history of revolutionary filmmaking). Though it is not a voice reading a half-assed book report, it is a voice speaking in the language of cinema -- a voice that speaks and make you want to listen. This isn't one of Godard's greatest films, though it is his most thoroughly political, and an utterly fascinating document as only he could make.